Old-crop barley to stick at intervention level

WITH the end of the old-crop marketing year nearly at an end, supplies left on-farm appear to have almost dried up.

This will probably have the effect of maintaining the old-crop market at about the Intervention level, said a spokesman from Banks Agriculture.

The intervention season has less than one month to run before closing, with deliveries made today (Wednesday) at £83.51/t.

This is a fall of more than £3/t since the start of the year, when intervention values reached £86.69/t for deliveries in the first week of January.

Ex-farm spot prices have remained stable, with prices between £71-£75/t.

But as the intervention stores build up, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has reported that high barley stocks in the EU are expected to keep prices under pressure.

The EIU have predicted that at the end of the 2000-2001 marketing year, the EU will have up to 14 million tonnes of barley in store, compared with a stockpile of less than 5 million tonnes held by other leading barley exporters.

They expect world barley prices will stay at about $85/t (£53/t) for the remainder of 1999, although better prices for other grains may help to push values up to about $100/t (£62.50/t) by 2001.